New ad campaign: Earth is the real terrorist, or something

posted at 5:45 pm on September 1, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

How badly did the ad agency DDB Brazil miscalculate on its new campaign for the World Wildlife Fund? Badly enough that the WWF says they may sue DDB-B for releasing this print ad without authorization and with their logo prominently featured. But hey — what sells conservation awareness better than minimizing the mass murder of 3,000 people by terrorists?

“The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.”

Wow! Sounds like the Earth is the real terrorist. I propose choking it to death with carbon dioxide! If we implement cap-and-trade, the really brutal terrorist wins.

Even better than the potential lawsuit from their client is the award DDB-B won from The One Show this year. Has the “merit” award ever been given to an unauthorized ad that was immediately disowned by the agency’s client? Maybe DDB-B can pay its legal retainer with their plaque.

Whoever thought of trivializing and commercializing the murders of 3,000 people for an ad campaign about conservation needs to search deep within themselves to determine whether their soul exists. (via The Corner)

Update: WWF sent me this response, to underscore their unhappiness (which I mention above):

WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad and did not authorize its production or publication. It is our understanding that it was a concept offered by an outside advertising agency seeking our business in Brazil. The concept was summarily rejected by WWF and should never have seen the light of day. It is an unauthorized use of our logo and we are aggressively pursuing action to have it removed from websites where it is being currently featured. We strongly condemn the messages and the images portrayed in this ad. On behalf of WWF, here in the US and around the world, we can promise you this ad does not in any way reflect the thoughts and feelings of the people of our organization.

Blowback

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There was something else like this a year or so ago, though for the life of me, I can’t recall the main details. It was a South African subsidiary of a really big Ad firm, the client had denounced the ads, thought they too had won awards. I recall that the ads were some sort of moral relativism invoking our America’s horrible brutality abroad.

Oh, so now you want to use rendition on tsunamis too? You really are evil.

Scrappy on September 1, 2009 at 7:53 PM

If you want to see real evil out of me, wait till I can get Cuban cigars and pollute the air some more. Of course, smoking pot doesn’t pollute the air but I smoke cigarettes so I’m part-way there. Once I get my mitts on a box of Havanas, though…

WWF, however, didn’t commission the ad. Indeed, it “strongly condemned” the ad in a press release. It’s an unauthorized concept created by an agency seeking the group’s business in Brazil. According to Advertolog, the ad was created by DDB Brasil.

What’s surprising is that so many people actually thought this ad came from WWF. It’s not known for insensitive advertising or PETA-style tricks. Aside from the ridiculously crass imagery, the biggest tip-off for me was the copy.

Are the false environmentalists now claiming that tsunamies are anthropologically caused? That is a new one. Boy, humans are all powerful! I wonder how we do it. The proximate cause of tsunamies are earthquakes and underwaster volcanic erruptions. It gets deeper every day.

I still think the best WWF ad is the one with their panda-logo, getting clobbered over the head pro-wrestling style, by another panda using a folding chair. After that one, albeit somewhat “unauthorized” I’m sure, why hire these DDB-B clowns in the first place?

When you think about how many people are involved in creating an ad campaign, it’s absolutely mindblowing to me that not one of them realized this was in incredibly poor taste. And this sort of thing happens more often than it should.

All of these morons should be fired.

NoLeftTurn on September 1, 2009 at 5:57 PM

They’re all anti-American so passing this ad around the office was like passing around a sweet piece of eye candy. Hell, half these idiots are for sure 911 deniers as well. They’re Brazilian right?
The world hates us. I say, that’s THEIR problem!

WWF probably loved the ad but fear the loss of millions of dollars from the hippies who secretly love the ad also but don’t want to admit it. The lawsuit should make up for the lost revenue, er, donations.

WWF was found to give 15% of donations to actually help wildlife. I guess they need the other 85% to pay for this stuff.